Author: Liam Otten

James Poag, a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department in Germanic Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 25. He was 90.

Kahan Chavda, BSBME ’16, co-founder of Inversa, a company pioneering the field of ethically harvested leathers, workshops with Sam Fox School students on how engineering and fashion design can support endangered ecosystems.

Rebecca Messbarger, professor of Italian in Arts & Sciences, has published a chapter titled “Popes, the Body, Medicine, and the Cult of Saints after Trent” as part of “The Cambridge History of the Papacy, Volume III: Civil Society.”

Jonathan Judaken was installed as the Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History & Thought in Arts & Sciences in April.

Twelve new graduates of the School of Continuing & Professional Studies Prison Education Project received their degrees May 14 during a commencement ceremony held at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in Pacific.

Jeanette Mrozinski, a master of fine arts candidate in creative nonfiction in WashU’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, has won the 2025 Calibre Essay Prize from the Australian Book Review.

Kim Lacey, a doctoral candidate in history in Arts & Sciences, has won a prestigious 2025-26 Korea Foundation Scholarship for Graduate Studies.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts has announced the theme for its 2026 James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture. The competition, which will mark the Steedman’s 100th anniversary, invites early-career architects from around the world to investigate and reimagine the fundamental systems, facilities and services that underlie contemporary life.

Philanthropists Nancy Kranzberg and Ken Kranzberg received the 2025 Dean’s Medal from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts April 10 as part of the school’s annual Awards for Distinction ceremony. Also recognized during the ceremony were six outstanding alumni in art, architecture and design.

“Adam Pendleton: To Divide By,” an exhibition catalog published by WashU’s Kemper Art Museum, has been named best monograph of 2024 by the Midwest Art History Society.